


unlikely friendships

by IntrovertedOwl



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Fluff, Found Family, Gen, I'm Bad At Titles, Post-Season/Series 02, Season 2 spoilers, Steve Is a Good Bro, Steve is a dad, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, also lotr mentions, everyone has a crush on steve, i liked him in s1 but in s2 i fell in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2019-01-28 13:00:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12607200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IntrovertedOwl/pseuds/IntrovertedOwl
Summary: In which everyone has a little crush on Steve Harrington.





	unlikely friendships

**Author's Note:**

> I finally watched the second season. And while I'm sad my ship didn't work out (I mean I knew Stave x Nancy wouldn't work out there were enough hints in season 1, but it still hurts okay) - WE GOT SO MUCH OF STEVE HARRINGTON and now he's popular among the rest of the fandom too <3
> 
> And the thing is, except for the ones who ended up dead (#JusticeForBob anyone?), everyone pretty much ended up happy-ish, EXCEPT for Steve, like when he drove off sadly I just felt :(
> 
> So I guess this is the result of my overflowing Steve-feels xD
> 
> (also, sorry about the super lame title.)

**** 1 ****

Maxine tapped her foot impatiently. _Why_ was her Mom taking so long? She'd be late for the party meet-up at Mike's place --

 

 _Party meet-up._ She snorted. She couldn't believe that it had only been a few months since she'd started hanging out with these kids and she was already using their lingo. Shared adventure-trauma maybe? That must be it.

 

She glanced at the clock and huffed. She was definitely going to be late. She'd been a little relieved that her Mom was home, although she'd never say that out loud. She didn't have to deal with her asshole step-brother for every thing anymore - although he'd kept his word and stayed away from her and her friends so far. Plus, her step dad was out of town, and her Mom was always more tolerable when he wasn't around, so --

 

"Stop that tapping, will you?"

 

Billy, unfortunately, was still here.

 

"Those losers will still be there. Pathetic how excited you are to hang out with them," he continued. "And _Harrington_. Jeez. Supposed to be the King of the place, and hangs out with weird little middle-schoolers. _Pathetic_."

 

She frowned. Steve didn't hang out with them _that_ often. He came over with Dustin sometimes and he'd stay over to chat. She'd gotten the whole story from the rest of them and she figured he probably felt lonely. Plus, he fought off demogorgons, offering himself as bait, tried to actually stop them from getting into any _serious_ trouble while not being over-protective, and got into a fight with _Billy_ , of all people, that made him cool enough in her eyes.

 

"Please. You're just jealous he's got better hair than you do."

 

_"Excuse me?"_

 

Riling him up wasn't exactly a great idea, but she'd had enough of being bullied by him. And it was a fact, anyway, Steve had _great_ hair.

 

"Of course. Every girl has a crush on _him_ , you're just the creepy weirdo."

 

Thankfully, her mom came out before he could say anything, and she walked out without a second glance. He _wished_ he could be like Steve.

 

 

****2****

"Wait, your date is _today?_ Where are you guys going? Have you even _planned_ something?"

 

"Of course I have, I'm not an _idiot_!"

 

"Uh, Mike, you should have told me earlier, I mean I could have, you know, suggested something better than a nerdy -"

 

"I'm _cool_ , okay -"

 

"Yeah, sure, I'm just saying -"

 

"And I had help. Seriously, I'm ready, Nance. It's going to be _great_."

 

"Help? What help?"

 

"Uh, _Steve_ , duh. Why do you think I was hanging out with him so much?"

 

"Wait, _Steve Harrington?_ What - when did this - how come you went to him? I mean, it's not like you guys ever talked much before."

 

Mike shrugged, "I don't know, he helped attack the demodogs and he fought Billy for us, so he seemed pretty cool. And he hangs out with Dustin quite often these days, so."

 

Nancy still looked like he'd just revealed his superpowers to her or something, so he continued, "Well, I mean he was really popular in school, wasn't he, I figured he'd know what he's talking about."

 

"Did _he_ get you these clothes?"

 

"Umm... yeah."

 

"Huh. They look nice."

 

Mike looked so pleased about that that Nancy couldn't help but smile about it. She still felt bad about how things had ended with them, they hadn't even talked properly - but she had to admit he was _good_ with these kids.

 

"I know. I mean I'm still nervous, but I think I _can_ do this."

 

"Yeah, sure you can. I'm sure Steve gave some tips, right?"

 

"Yeah, he did," Mike said enthusiastically. "He said --"

 

She tuned out a bit but she couldn't help chuckle a little over how much her little brother was idolizing Steve. She wasn't complaining, though, it was almost _cute_. 

 

 

****3****

"Mrs. Byers, please, _please_ let Will come along, _please_?"

 

"I'm not saying you can't go, I'm just saying he needs to be back by seven because I have to go somewhere for dinner, and I can't pick him up after that, and Jonathan can't either bec-"

 

"Steve said he'll drop him!"

 

Jonathan blinked. _"Steve?"_

 

"Uh, Steve _Harrington_? The one you who helped you guys, with the uh, you know, uh --"

 

"Demodogs! Yeah! He's picking up Dustin anyway, so he said he can drop off Will too, it's no big deal!"

 

"Uh, well, are you sure? I don't want to --"

 

"Yeah, he said it's fine, not a problem!"

 

" _Please_ , mom?"

 

"Uh, okay if--"

 

"Wa-wait, back up a second," said Jonathan. "Why is Steve picking up _Dustin_?"

 

"Oh, that's a long story, and I'm not even sure how it happened, but -"

"He's kinda cool, though, like he showed us this cool place where you could go and -"

"And remember that trick he showed us about how to get out of -" Lucas stopped abruptly at Will's warning look and realized that it probably wasn't a good idea to tell his mom that Steve had told them how he would sneak out or into his room when he was grounded.

 

Mrs. Byers smiled a little, "Okay, then, but no later than nine, okay?"  


"Yes! Thanks, mom!"

 

"Yeah, have fun," said Jonathan. He still thought it was weird, but considering _he_ was the one considered a freak by most people at school, he had no business thinking that way. He wasn't exactly sure where he and Steve stood now, it was clear he still had feelings for Nancy, and he's not sure if they had talked to each other about it, but he was grateful for everything Steve had done to help them out. And if whatever he and the kids did together helped Will out and made him feel like, well, like he was _himself_ again, well, he didn't know how he could ever thank Steve enough for that.

 

 

****4****

"Look, just because I help you and your friends out sometimes doesn't mean I'm interested in your monster stories -"

 

"It's not a monster story, it's high fantasy, and you're only saying that because you haven't read this book, which, I swear on the party's honour, will Change. Your. Life."

 

Steve muttered something under his breath. Dustin could only make out the words "stupid" and "party" but he got the sentiment behind it. "The party is not stupid. We're a democracy, and we decided to even consider allowing you to join our party you have to do this one basic thing. Generally, there are a lot more conditions, but we're cutting you some slack."

 

Steve had perfected his one-eyebrow-raised, are-you-for-real look a long time ago and he was using it now, but damn that kid had the most proud little smile on his face, like he'd actually made a perfect offer no one could refuse and he didn't really have the heart to say no.

 

He sighed. "Fine."

 

 

 

He honestly had no intention of ever actually reading that damn book.

 

He's still not sure why he did.

 

Maybe because he'd been driving past when he saw Nancy and Jonathan holding hands in the park. And he felt miserable.

Maybe because he suddenly realized that he hadn't sent in his college applications and he had no freaking clue about what to do with his life.

Maybe because he suddenly realized that he didn't actually have anyone to talk to anymore, except for a bunch of middle-school kids.

 

Or maybe he was just bored and lonely and there was really nothing else to do.

 

So he started reading it, and -

 

He was _hooked_.

 

 

"Well, _that_ ," he said, dumping the book in front of Dustin. "Was. Epic."

 

Dustin beamed.

 

"I told you!"

 

"Yeah, well, I honestly was _not_ expecting it to be so good."

 

Two hours later, the entire gang was sitting together debating Lord of the Rings, and who was who, with the only thing everyone agreed upon being Jane was Gandalf, and that Aragorn was cool (so obviously everyone wanted to be Aragorn and no one wanted anyone else to be him).

 

Max finally shouted that she'd be Eowyn.

 

"Fine then, I'm Sam," Steve said.

 

"Why do you want to be _Sam?!"_

 

"Uh, because he's kind of cool?"

 

Mike rolled his eyes.

 

"Well, if you're Sam, I'm Frodo," said Dustin.

 

And of course that started another argument.

 

But looking around him, Steve realized Billy and the rest of them could laugh all they wanted, sitting and debating Lord of the Rings with a bunch of thirteen year olds wasn't so bad - after all none of those people had helped him fight the demogorgons.

 

He really was going to be alright.

**Author's Note:**

> ~ I'm teamtonystarkneedsahug on tumblr ~


End file.
